Parc archéologique de Beynac

Useful Information

Location:	Beynac et Cazenac, Dordogne. (44.844171, 1.145672)
Open:	closed. [2023]
Fee:	closed. [2023]
Classification:	Museums Archaeological Open Air Museum
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Parc archéologique de Beynac, La Tour du Couvent, 24220 Beynac, Tel: +33-553-295128, Fax: +33-553-284692. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1989	opened to the public.
2019	closed./td>

Description

The Parc archéologique de Beynac is one of numerous prehistory parcs in France. They all work in the same way: visitors can see how people lived in the stone age, typical problems are making fire, making tools and clothes, hunting, throwing spears, and typical food. This is either demonstrated or there are workshop for visitors to try it themselves. This parc is a result of a Bronze Age settlement was found at the foot of the Beynac castle. The parc is located on the excavation site and run by the Museum Association of the Sarladais area.

This parc is specialized on the Celtic time, the Bronze Age, which was excavated on site. But there are also displays from the Neolithic, Copper, and Iron Ages, the time between 6,000 BC and 50 years BC. The entrance resembles a fortified gate of a Celtic oppidum. The village was also reconstructed with various workshops. There is a typical dwelling showing how people lived and a funerary dolmen which contains human remains, showing how the managed death. Other aspects of life are a hut with a granary, kilns for firing pottery and furnaces for smelting iron.

The program of the site depends on the day, so it is good to check online what the topic of the day is. Wenn es Ihnen egal ist, können Sie sich natürlich auch überraschen lassen, es wird auf jeden Fall interessant. Neolithic workshops include flint knapping and primitive archery, pottery and cooking, weaving and dying. The former nomads settled, built villages and started cereal cultivation and the breeding and domestication of animals like as sheep, pigs, goats and cattle. This required new concepts like property and territory. New technologies are developed, weaving, pottery, and polished stone. The metal ages include iron, copper and bronze casting, ore crushing and a forging mill. Copper was used to make jewels, tools, and weapons like daggers, arrowheads, or axes. Bronze is made by dding tin to copper, the alloy is harder and more effective for manufacturing tools and weapons. Economic and cultural exchanges by sea and land between European and Mediterranean peoples started. Animal haulage was discovered.

Unfortunately the site was closed in 2019. As it has not been reopened in the last 4 years it is very unlikely that it ever will. Like always there are still pages promoting the site and the only newspaper article about the closure is behind a paywall. We leave this page so potential visitors are informed that the site is no more.